Everything's A Special Case, Including Wineries Online

I'm continuing my annoying habit of pointing to insightful posts from Seth Godin by linking to That's a special case:

The new business isn't the same as the old business, just with computers.

The same is true of taking your winery online.

As an example, what would your wine club look like if it were truly Web-enabled?  It's not just your old wine club with computers.

It takes work to really think about this sort of thing, but I believe the payoff can be enormous.

Comments

[Richard Shaffer]

Mike:

I don't know that any of us have done a great job bringing to life the best of our experiential, off-line energy onto the Web. I know I haven't! And you're for sure right that "new media" is not just a pipe to shove the same old boring content through the system and hope for different results.

The gap between what it feels like to be in a room with me at an event and the vibe from our site is still way too huge. And I'm trying to address that now.

You really made me think (as usual!) with your question about a truly Web-enabled Wine Club. Any thoughts?

Richard

[rick]

richard,

I'm not Mike, but... here goes.

You can't replicate the in person experience - the web's great but it's just not going to be the same as standing there with a glass of wine talking to you. BUT...

Try to bring the essential character of your winery over to the web. Write your own copy - and don't be corporate. Let your personality shine through. If you work with a designer on the site make sure that they get what you're about and why the people who love your stuff love it.

For those people who've been to your place, make the online club reflect that experience.... do a rotating slider of photos taken in the tasting room with real people... post notes on stuff you're tasting in barrel. Bring the excitement you feel to the online tasting room so that people want to feel that too.